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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Deciding what to serve with a whole grilled chicken was easy. I had some potatoes from our CSA and the Potato book from Williams-Sonoma, and I put the two together. I’m really not being paid by WS this week, but I seem to keep mentioning them. I handed this book to Kurt and asked him to pick a potato dish, and his choice was fennel and parmesan scalloped potatoes. Fresh fennel bulb was thinly sliced to bake within layers of potatoes and cheese, and it became tender and mild as its anise flavor mellowed and mingled with the other ingredients. It was a simple dish to assemble, and the hour it spent in the oven gave me plenty of time to prepare the rest of the meal.

I always seem to get lazy when it comes to peeling potatoes, and I don’t mind seeing the peel anyway. So, as usual, I ignored the step about removing the peels. Slicing the potatoes and the fennel was made quick and easy with a Benriner. Once sliced, they were placed in a pot with half and half, milk, chopped chives, chopped fennel fronds, and thyme. That half and half was supposed to have been cream, but I was feeling like I just didn’t need a dose of heavy cream that day, so I used half and half instead. The pot was placed over medium-high heat, brought to a boil, and allowed to boil for a minute. Half of the mixture was transferred to a greased baking dish, it was sprinkled with shredded parmigiano reggiano, the other half was layered on top, the remaining liquid was poured into the baking dish, and more cheese was added. This baked, covered with foil, for 40 minutes, and then the foil was removed for an additional 20 minutes in the oven.

Given the combination that went into the baking dish and the amount of time the layered potatoes and fennel spent melding and becoming fetchingly golden, I don’t think it’s necessary to explain how good that was. It’s not even possible that it wouldn’t be good. The fennel had a barely noticeable sturdier texture than the potatoes, and the cheese added its lovely nutty, salty richness. This potato dish could be paired with a lot of things, but it worked very well with chicken.

I made something like this around Thanksgiving but my recipe was from Ina Garten. It was, big surprise here, too rich. This looks a little lighter - especially with the 1/2 and 1/2. Looks absolutely delicious.

Hard to go wrong with potatoes and cheese, no? It's funny, I'm seeing a lot of recipes for gratins and scallop potatoes this week - must be the "it's almost too hot to eat food like this so I'm going to get in one or two more decadent dishes" impulse!

When I was a kid, my Dad would sometimes indulge me by letting me eat a big bowl of scalloped potatoes -- and nothing else -- for dinner. Scalloped potatoes with their cheesy topping will always hold a special place in my heart (and stomach!).

This looks absolutely lovely! Fennel and potatoes... well, everyone before has said it already! heavenly combination. I also hardly ever peel the potatoes. Saves so much time and I actually think it tastes better in general.

Missed this the first time around so I'm happy that you've brought it back out! This is a sign - all morning, Minneapolis Farmer's Market has been tweeting about fennel. Now, I'm on a mission! Let me see if I can find this WS at the library (or maybe online, if I'm lucky?)